Powered 500 · 2026POWEREDS. 455 of 500
Co-founding Slack in 2013 and growing it into a 30-million-user enterprise platform that Salesforce acquired for $27.7 billion in 2021, Butterfield built two category-defining companies — both rescued from failed video game projects.
Stewart Butterfield is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Slack, the workplace messaging platform that fundamentally changed how teams communicate and collaborate.
Butterfield co-founded Slack in 2013 and grew it into one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in history before Salesforce acquired it for $27.7 billion in 2021. He stepped down as Slack CEO in January 2023 and departed Salesforce. Before Slack, Butterfield co-founded Flickr, the pioneering photo-sharing platform that Yahoo acquired in 2005. Both Slack and Flickr emerged as pivots from failed video game projects, making him one of the most successful pivot entrepreneurs in technology history.
Interview · In Pipeline
Sponsored placement
An invitation, extended to Powered readers.
Drive the Continental GT S.
Request a test driveBentley T&Cs apply
